Arturia MiniBrute - analog monosynth

[Ned Bouhalassa]

I do have to say that my life is a little bit simpler since I got my deposit back. I feel for some of you guys, though!

[jaypodesta]

No we don't. Not in Europe.

Got mine (UK) so there must be a few around? Surely?

[adhmzaiusz]

No we don't. Not in Europe.

Got mine (UK) so there must be a few around? Surely?

I got mine in Frankfurt. Apparently the one I got wasn't for sale but they had confirmation that a bunch were coming in the next day, so they sold it to me. Check with "Cream Music" http://www.cream-music.com/

[Bitexion]

Gladly I left no deposit or pre-order money, the shop owner will just hold one off for me since I'm a regular customer
So no money paid until it arrives.

[jaypodesta]

I guess it is a bit of a lottery... You just want to be able to rock up and get one like you would most other pieces of gear.

Worth it when you do finally get hold of one.

[Kidney05]

There's another new review in this month's keyboard magazine. "Every feature on this synth is implemented perfectly, and in over a decade of reviewing gear, I have never said that before". The author applauds the care and attention to detail in many of the features.

[Bitexion]

What the h**l, the day has come. I'm going to pick mine up in a moment. Miracles do happen. He'd ordered 20 MB's, and got ONE yesterday.

Only had about 30 minutes from I got it home before work, so barely got time to unpack it, hook it up and try a couple of the patch sheets. The gray ones were a brilliant idea, they're like presets to show off various sides of the synth.
And my god those sounds were awesome. Also glad the orange ones are plastic/rubbery, so I can mark on them with a whiteboard marker and erase again. Paper sheets would be a bad idea, could only have used each sheet once then.

I have never played a monosynth that sounds so "alive". It wasn't just static sound, specially with the metalizer engaged something is always glitching and moving. Liked the sturdy feeling of the knobs and sliders too. And aftertouch keyboard is a big plus too. The suboscillator is fat as h**l. I'm gonna love this synth.

[CaveDweller]

I've heard alot of demos of the MB and I am quite impressed. I understand the keybed has AFTERTOUCH and the synth engine responds as such. That's nice. I also read that it can be used as a polyphonic MIDI CONTROLLER..which has me intrigued. I have ONE QUESTION, though. If I hook up an external synth module to the MIDI OUT of the Minibrute...will the MB send that same "key pressed" AFTERTOUCH through the MIDI OUTPUT to my external module (which DOES respond to aftertouch)? Reading the manual I wasn't certain this was possible. Just trying to eliminate one extra controller keyboard in my setup (if this is the case). Can any MB owners try this out to verify that it works? Cheers.

[Bitexion]

Yes, all synths with aftertouch send out a stream of MIDI info responding to your pressure. So it's a great little MIDI VST controller keyboard too. Fits snuggly in front of the computer without having to clear your entire desk.

Here's a review from my fave synth reviewer, Katsunori Ujie. He works for Yamaha making patches for all their synths all the way back to the 80s, and is a pro keyboardist on the side. You don't have to know Japanese, click the CC button to get subtitles. Or just watch, and you figure out what he's talking about anyway. On this youtube channel he mostly reviews vintage gear, sometimes new gear too. He does a nice narration through all the features of the synth while constantly showing the sound.

One of the greatest features is that the mixer section lets you mix together all the oscillator waveforms. Usually the waveforms are totally separate.



To put it in his own words: Well done, Arturia!

[adhmzaiusz]

Yes the aftertouch is quite nice. I brought it over to a friend's a few nights ago and was jamming against a bunch of classic analogs, and what really hit me in this scenario was assigning the AT to the cutoff. I was able to make swells that crept nicely into the mix, and it certainly held it's own vs these synths in the sound dept. Performance wise it really is great, I myself really prefer the wheel type this thing has... and I'm so happy the bend assign can go +- 1 octave.

Also what has caught my attention is out of two different friends I've set loose on it, I've heard both of them coax sounds out of it that I've never heard it do. It's a keeper for sure... might just become my new live instrument.

[Bitexion]

The "Ultrasaw" on the sawtooth isn't the same thing as the Supersaw on the JP8K btw. It makes two physical clones of the sawtooth, set them a bit out of phase with the original, and apply a 0.5Hz LFO to the first, and variable (via a knob on the panel) from 0.5-10Hz LFO on the second, and mix it with the original to create a different waveform. This creates a lovely chorusing effect, or just sounds like 3 slightly detuned sawtooth oscillators. Very well thought out feature.

Also mixing all the waveforms and a modulated metalizer makes it sound like the synth has 4-5 VCO's with different sounds. Add -1 or -2 octave suboscillator and mind is properly blown. All this with just 1 VCO.

[alan partridge]

"There's another new review in this month's keyboard magazine. "Every feature on this synth is implemented perfectly, and in over a decade of reviewing gear, I have never said that before".

seems he liked it then ...

[Bitexion]

But it's true, it's like they brainstormed at 4am in the morning after drinking coffee for 6 hours straight, then someone yelled "Let's throw in THIS, and THAT, and THIS too!", the others went "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa woohooo!" and sent the scrawled plans to the tech guys. Who actually made it work perfectly. Most of the analogue circuits were custom-designed by Steiner (the creator of the synthacon modular stuff) for this synth. The filter is wacky, goes out of control long before you reach max resonance. And you lose no bass at all like the Moog filters do. Something to do with the design.

[Sir Ruff]

The "Ultrasaw" on the sawtooth isn't the same thing as the Supersaw on the JP8K btw. It makes two physical clones of the sawtooth, set them a bit out of phase with the original, and apply a 0.5Hz LFO to the first, and variable (via a knob on the panel) from 0.5-10Hz LFO on the second, and mix it with the original to create a different waveform. This creates a lovely chorusing effect, or just sounds like 3 slightly detuned sawtooth oscillators. Very well thought out feature.

yeah, I am really coming to appreciate that... I tend to just slightly detune dual oscillators anyway (in the most boring way possible), and this recreates that effect perfectly. A very slowly moving ultrasaw, with the sub-oscillator underneath is a THICK sound. I really like the sub-osc square on its own too.

[Bitexion]

I only wish the LFO's would go higher, like up to 50-100Hz so you could get some wacky ringmod sounds out of them.

Great though that you have a totally separate "vibrato" LFO so you don't have to waste the usual LFO for modwheel vibrato They really thought of everything.